Raging Star - Dustlands III by Moira Young

The stars are tumblin' outa the sky an Saba's star xsd destiny is all scattered across the sands. Her band o' rebels is tired an squabblin' an she don't know who to trust - her heartstone or mebbe her blood. She needs a plan to stop De Malo's vizhuns an Tonton soldiers roundin' up slaves an takin' babies.

Mebbe Auriel Tan will tell her what she needs to know cuz she can see the future. A lotta peepul died because they believed Saba would show 'em the way - but she is The Angel o' Death an the rumours are spreadin' like a wildfire.

It's a hard road ahead, but Love is a comfort burnin' like poetry off the page. Love an regret, Saba. You choose which - find your destiny one broken step at a time.

Will you fly with the Freehawks over the dried up terrain of New Eden or follow The Pathfinder with his vizhuns an his promise of a new civilizashun? Would yer burn yer bridges or betray yer friends?

There ain't no easy answers when the questions is blowin' across the parched Wreck-age and bones of the Old Tech. The blood red road is comin' to an end, Saba - you need a river. A river to sail away on.

This is a brilliant ending for one of the grittiest sequences of modern times. Brutal, morally compromised characters to root for. The Dustlands Trilogy, that began with the Costa Award winning Blood Red Road* and continued through Rebel Heart, is a journey into the fractured human condition, into a broken world that gives other well known dystopian futures a sizeable blow to the solar plexus.

* This book is full of sand an dust an danger an the colour o blood an horsehide an black feathers. Saba's brother is taken by four riders so she sets out from her desert home with a pesky sister hardly a lot else to get him back. But she finds the Angel of Death and the long road ahead is soaked in blood. It is peepuled with dysfunctional misfits who muddle through the pocalyptik distopia what makes for society - lyin an cheating an double crossin. Gets hard to know who to trust. Best trust the red rage. Chance on the heartstone. Fly with that bird.

12+